Wednesday, December 19, 2007
At about 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, while driving home from shopping at Wal-Mart, I (Charlie) experienced chest pains accompanied by pain near the right jaw. A moment later the right hand started going numb, and then I became short of breath. I was almost home when this happened, and Wendi and Joe were in the car with me. The episode was short-lived; as we arrived home, the pains subsided. I was OK but very tired.
My regular doctor was not in on Tuesday, so we phoned the doctor on call. She told me to go to the emergency room at Mercy Hospital. Wendi and I went there at 3:15 p.m. and were there until 8:15 p.m. An EKG performed within the first few minutes was normal. Five vials of blood drawn just after 5 p.m. yielded normal test results; even the cardiac enzymes were normal (these are usually elevated after a heart attack). The chest X-rays taken after 7:30 appeared normal.
The doctor noted that I am 49 years old and healthy, with none of the typical risk factors for coronary disease, so nothing in the way of normal preventive maintenance could be recommended. I was sent home with instructions to see my regular doctor within one to two days, and if the problem re-occurs, I should come back to the emergency room.
The emergency room doctor phoned me at home at 11:36 p.m. Upon closer examination of the X-rays, the radiologist had spotted what looked like pneumonia. This is odd because I had no fever or cough; nevertheless, the doctor prescribed an antibiotic for the condition. They also want my regular doctor to follow up with a CT scan of the chest.